JTI takeover bumps up Mighty’s excise taxes

MANILA, Philippines — Excise tax collections from Mighty Corp. almost tripled to P6.2 billion since its operations was taken over by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Philippines Inc., the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

According to DOF data, Mighty Corp.’s excise tax payments surged 200 percent to P6.2 billion in the first 10 months from P2.07 billion in the first 10 months the same period last year.

JTI Philippines bought Mighty Corp. from the Wongchuking family for P46.8 billion in September after the latter was embroiled in controversy due to alleged use of fake internal revenue stamps.

Of the amount, P25 billion was offered to the government by Mighty Corp. as settlement for its tax liabilities.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said JTI is expected to pay a minimum of P3.1 billion a month starting January 2018, which is about P2 billion more per month than what Mighty Corp. had previously been paying.

“For fiscal year 2018, JTI is expected to pay almost P40 billion out of the estimated P118 billion in total excise tax collections on tobacco products,” he said.

This amount represents a third of the total revenue collections from the excise tax on cigarettes, according to Dominguez.

According to Bureau of Internal Revenue data, the agency collected P17.7 billion in excise taxes in September, 12 percent higher than the P15.67 billion in the same month in 2016.